Taking NASCAR Back to its Roots

Part 1 of our Zero To 60TV NASCAR special on Timmy Hill and the #66 Toyota Camry.

The question I kept hearing during our LeithCars.com NASCAR unveiling at Leith Toyota, whether it be from customers, race fans or the Leith Toyota staff was, “Is that the real race car or a demo?”  My reply was the same every time, “This is the real race car you’ll be seeing on Charlotte Motor Speedway’s new #ROVAL race course September 29th.  And that tall guy over there in the green shirt is the driver, Timmy Hill.”  But let’s back up first.  How did LeithCars.com get to be a sponsor of a NASCAR race car and who is the elderly gentleman signing autographs with Timmy? Well, the story goes like this…

One morning in early August, our marketing boss walked into the Zero To 60 corner of the office, (where we’re constantly working on ideas for our next cool automotive project) and asked us, “We have the opportunity to sponsor a NASCAR race car.  What do you think?”  Zero pause. “YES!”  Now, I won’t go into the nitty gritty of what went down leading up to that moment, or the initial phone conversations we had with MBM Motorsports (the race team we’re sponsoring).  Suffice it to say that we were determined to make a big impact on race day, September 29th, 2018 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the first ever road course/oval race (ROVAL) and the clock was ticking – 59 days to race day.

Timmy Hill, an up and coming NASCAR racer in his mid-twenties would be our driver.  Timmy was the 2011 Nationwide Series Rookie of the Year, so the man knows what he’s doing.  “He’ll be driving a Toyota in the Xfinity Series race,” we were told by his race team, “and his car number is 66.”  At that moment, a bright light filled the room.  It was the light bulb beaming over the head of our boss.  This happens often so we weren’t startled.  He said, “We just did that great video story with Our State Magazine about historic Occoneechee Speedway and one of the local drivers from the 1960s. I wonder if we could make Timmy’s car into sort of a tribute to the driver we featured, Gene Hobby.” And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why he’s the boss.  What an awesome idea.  There are so many tie-ins, and he’s got a great story.  And what is NASCAR without a few great stories, right?

Now let’s break down how LeithCars.com is taking NASCAR back to its roots with our first ever race car sponsorship.

A Historic Race Track: Occoneechee/Orange Speedway came to life as the brainchild of Bill France Sr., founder of NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) while he was looking for race track sites to launch his new racing league. He bought a horse track from a landowner in Orange County in 1947, expanded its length to accommodate race cars and Occoneechee Speedway opened as one of the original NASCAR speedways during the inaugural season of 1949.  The track remained a .9 mile dirt track for its lifespan, which ended in 1968 with the opening of NASCAR’s superspeedway at Talladega, Alabama a year later. Today, the remains of the race track are on the National Register of Historic Places. The property also serves as a nature walking trail.

An Old School NASCAR Driver: In the mid-1960s, Gene Hobby, a former United States Marine with a passion for automobile racing, decided he would give stock car racing a go by building a car to race in the NASCAR Grand National Cup Series (known today as the Monster Energy Cup Series).  All it took to race back in those rough and tumble days was a car (which he bought at a local Dodge dealer), a couple of mechanics, a sponsor – M.E. Whitmore, Inc. of Henderson, and a heaping dose of courage.  Gene’s sky blue #99 Dodge Coronet had a fabricated roll cage installed and lap belt across the driver’s seat. Gene also wore a metallic blue motorcycle helmet with goggles as his safety gear.  That was it.  Oh, and I should note that Occoneechee Speedway in those days had no guardrails, just some chicken wire fencing. If you and your car went up and over the dirt banking, you ended up in the woods.  During a race in 1965, a year before he would retire from Cup racing, Gene Hobby’s Dodge went end over end during a terrible race day crash.  Luckily for Gene, he had the addition of a shoulder harness in his car that year and his blue motorcycle helmet.  They saved his life.

An Underdog Driver: Timmy Hill has been racing since he was twelve, thanks to a go-kart given to him by his race car driving Dad.  He racked up an amazing 80 wins in KART including two World Karting Association championships beginning in 2005.  After mastering each challenging level of motorsports by progressing to a larger race car as he moved up the ladder, Hill made it to the NASCAR Nationwide Series.  He ran a full schedule in 2011 and became the youngest NASCAR Rookie of the Year at age 18.  Timmy made his first Cup start at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2012 and joined MBM Motorsports last year.  He regularly competes in NASCAR’s Xfinity Series, Monster Energy Cup Series, and Camping World Truck Series.  He’s also a super friendly guy who, as I was told by the team’s promoter, is “one of the most followed underdog drivers in NASCAR.”   Timmy was great with the fans who came to see him and the LeithCars.com #66 Toyota Camry at our unveiling event September 18th at Leith Toyota in Raleigh.  Timmy also hit it off with Gene Hobby, our honorary guest at the event.

Now, are you ready to make NASCAR racing history with us?  Just follow the LeithCars.com team on social media September 29th (@leithcars) for the first-ever #ROVAL NASCAR race.  We’ll have videos and more posted before, during and after the event.  If you’d like to learn more about the all-new 2018 Toyota Camry, (our race car is based on the 2017 design), go to LeithToyota.com or just visit them at 8005 Capital Blvd. Raleigh. N.C.  Their Camrys aren’t quite NASCAR-ready, but in their defense, at least they’re street legal.

Written by Mark Arsen for LeithCars.com